Pirates
by Loonybin
Summary: Chapter Two is now up. sorry this took so long. my PC crashed!
1. Default Chapter

Pirates

Pirates

** **

(a/n- ok plot…the gangs parents are coming to visit for Christmas, The blue orb causes more idiotic problems, and Tommy and Cass's parents finally get told that they're grandparents. This takes place three weeks after they've returned from King Arthur's court. Please r/r and as always have fun.)

_-Loonybin (7/14/01)_

_~_

This all started the week before Christmas when I asked Josh to bring me the mail. He did so willingly and then stuck around to see if there was anything for him. I sorted through it. Bills, Bills, Bills, Solicitations, more bills, and then a letter addressed to Thomas and Cassandra Dawkins. Glancing at the return address I saw Massachusetts in small letters.

"Who's it from?" asked Josh, peering over my shoulder.

"Home." I shrugged, and pulled it open.

_ _

_Dear Tommy, Cassandra, Angelique, Merton, and Cally,_

___Christmas is a time to spend with family, and as yours we've (Mr. & Mrs. Dingle & Becky and Mr. & Mrs. Dawkins and Mrs. & Mr. Black & Chris & Trix) decided to fly over to London for a holiday visit. We'll be arriving on December 20th and departson January 5th. Our hotel reservations have been made for the London Embassy Suites. The airline is Virgin, flight # 4536 arriving at gate #6 at Heathrow airport. 3:45 pm sharp._

_We love you all very much and hope for a merry holiday for us to spend together._

_Love,_

_Sally, Dean and Bob Dawkins & Grace, Becky and Vince Dingle & Sandy, Patrick, Trix, and Chris Black_

I finished reading the letter and it dropped from my hands.

"Coming to visit?" I said almost silently to myself. 

"Not good news?" Josh asked picking up the letter and reading it for himself. "Why's it bad that your parents are coming? Are they mean?"

I shook my head. "What's today?"

"the nineteenth." He said.

"Tommy I'm home! Yo, Josh where are you?" My sister's voice ran through the flat disrupting all thoughts of parents, until I remembered that I'd have to tell her…

"Lyrissa!" Josh yelled as she entered the living room. "Guess what, dad just got a letter. Your parents are coming!"

…If Josh didn't get there first. __

"Huh?" she looked at me queerly, as if to say 'you're gonna let _them_ in _here_!' Lyrissa hadn't exactly had the best relationship with our parents. She was just a little to outrageous for them. Their last straw was when she compound broke her leg doing a supposed 'bike stunt' (a/n- I wrote a whole piece on it. It's called **_Suspicion_**. Read it. It'll explain a lot.). so after that I snuck her off to England with Cass and I. My parents had been, to say the least, very pissed. 

"You'll survive." I said dryly.

"They're gonna be pissed at you too." She pointed at me. "and how're we gonna explain the scars and bruises I've accumulated. I can see it now: 'yeah mom, I was about to be beheaded when my brother saved me by turning into a wolf'. Sorry Tommy. I don't buy it."

"Aren't we the pessimist today?" I said in the same tone, raising an eyebrow. "Why don't you and Josh go out? I've got some calls to make."

"I got my allowance t'day." Josh looked at Lyrissa. "Can we go to the comic book store?"

"Yeah, sure." She took a breath. "lemeegrab a coat."

"Oh, Rissa." I called out. "They'll be here tomorrow."

"Thy dark angels of death douth settle upon me and mine.' She muttered.

"Our parents are the dark angels of death?" I asked. "Goodbye you two."

"Bye dad." Josh streaked out the door. Lyrissa mumbled something then closed the door behind her. I Inhaled sharply as they left. Now I could start worrying how the hell we were gonna explain Josh. I reached over for the phone and dialed Cass's office. She, for some ungodly reason, had gone into work today. She'd said something about a cat with a stomach problem that couldn't wait (she was a vet). She worked for herself, and set her own hours, but she usually took Saturdays and Sundays off.

"Hello?" Her secretary Mrs. Able answered. "Cassandra Dawkins' office. How may I help you?"

"Hey, this is Tommy." I said quickly. "Is Cass around?"

"One second." I heard her yell for Cass. "She's coming."

"Tommy?" Cass came on sounding worried. "Is something wrong?"

"Our parents are coming tomorrow for the holidays." I stated, getting to the point.

"What!" I held the phone away from my ear to protect from going death. "They're just coming…to stay with us. Why?"

"I just got a letter today. They're not staying with us, they're staying at a hotel."

"All of our parents?"

"Mine, yours, and Merton's."

"Have you told Merton?" she asked.

"No." I said. "I'll call him after I get off with you."

"How long are they staying?" I could imagine her pacing back and forth biting her lip. 

"Till the fifth."

"Tommy." She sounded stricken. "Merton says I'm due on the third. How'll we explain that?"

"We might want to work on explaining Josh first." I told her. "They don't know. Remember?"

"Call them and tell them they can't come!" she hissed.

"I told you, they're coming tomorrow. How're they going to cancel now?"

"D'know." She growled. "But find a way!"

"Can you transfer me to Merton's office?" Cass, Merton and I all worked in the same building. There were two main offices where Cass and Merton worked. Then there's a large area like a gymnasium where I run a kennel. Cally works a few streets down near Piccadilly Square. She and her mom run (with the help of some magic) sort of a supernatural heeling shop called Mystical Stones. Rissa calls it 'Mystically Stoned', because when ever we go in there we feel drugged out by all the smelly candles.

"He's not in right now." Cass said. "He's with Cally."

"At their place?"

"No, Mystical Stones." She paused. "How'd Lyrissa take the news?"

"Our parents are dark angels of death." I quoted.

"Sure…ok, I'll see you later." She hung up.

~

"Rissa, you could at least **look** happy to see them." Merton nudged her in ribs.

"I shan't lie about my emotions, nor should you. Thee are fooling thy self." She answered. Lyrissa had a tendency to slip into Shakespearian speech when she was unhappy about something. It was an annoying habit, but no more so than when she started talking in the third person, a recent habit that had seemed to pop up out of nowhere.

"Just try, and be pleasant." I said. "They'll be coming through the gate any second."

"They tried to send me to military school Tommy." She fixed me with a glare. "I'll be about as pleasant as a fish outa water."

"Deep breaths people." Cass announced. "here they come." I saw her glance nervously at Josh.

We looked at the gate trying to spot them through the crowds.

"Oh my god!" Merton put a hand to his mouth.

"what's the matter?" Cally looked at him worriedly.

"Dean standing up, and…walking!" he said in a hushed whisper.

"He's what?!" My head snapped looking for this amazing feat. I soon saw him. He was standing behind my mom and dad, who were standing with Cass and Merton's families. My mom saw us first. She gasped, putting a hand to her mouth and ran over to us. Actually she didn't run over to **us**, she ran to Lyrissa, barely acknowledging the rest of us.

"My baby!" She grabbed Lyrissa, and started to smother her in kisses. "Angelique, I've missed you so much! I was so worried when you ran off, you can't believe…"

"One, mother," started Rissa in an icy tone. "My name is Lyrissa, or if thee prefers, Rissa. Two, I doubt thou has missed me much. And Three, I didn't run off."

My mother looked a bit taken aback from Lyrissa's tone. 

"Tommy, she's getting melodramatic again." Cass groaned in my ear. "Rissa I mean."

"She's been taking acting classes." I offered to my mom, as an excuse for Rissa's tone.

"Tommy!" She kissed me.

At this time the rest of everyone's families had made there way over and there was a large reunion going on. Lyrissa was glaring at my parents, Merton was showing of Cally, and Cass was catching up with her twin. I noticed Becky and Chris staying extremely close to each other; I guessed there was a relation brewing.

"If you don't watch out, you're gonna be Cass's sister in law." I pointed the couple out the Merton.

"Demon girl actually got some one eh?" asked Merton.

"I heard that Freakinstine." Becky said sweetly.

"Um, Rebecca, dear sister," Merton looked smugly at her. "This **Freakinstine** is helping to pay for your Harvard Law tuition. Be nice, or pay the price."

Her eyes widened, and she turned back to Chris. Lyrissa and I walked over to Dean to say hello, and all that good stuff.

"Hey Dean." Rissa said smiling.

"TV…TV…General…Hospital." He gasped and coughed out. I looked at Lyrissa trying to hold back laughter. She backed away a few steps and started giggling.

"That is really sad." She said in between giggles.

"You're telling me." I joined in the laughter. "But I guess it's an accomplishment to have actually gotten him up and out of the house."

"Tommy!" Cass came up behind us. "They've seen Josh."

I stopped laughing immediately and looked into her eyes, which were saying 'get the hell over there'. I decided to listen to the eyes and follow her over. My and Cass's parents had sort of alienated them selves from the rest. They were standing to the side by the first class waiting room. Both sets of parents had cloudy expressions on their faces that made it impossible for me to see what they were thinking. Josh was standing a little away from them shrugging at us as if to say sorry. Cass pulled him in close (she's been incredibly over-protective since the time he'd been kid-knapped be the werewolf syndicate) and stared at our parents.

"When did we become grandparents?" asked Cass's mom. She had one green eye and one brown eye. It was natural, but very intimidating to have to look into them.

"He's nine." Cass said bravely.

"I was seventeen, she was sixteen." I said, trying to avoid the glares.

"High-school?" I could tell my dad was trying to keep from yelling. "You were in high-school?"

"Yeah." Cass and I said together.

"How were you supporting yourselves? How are you supporting yourselves?" asked my mom. "you never wrote home telling what you were doing, all we knew is that you kid-knapped your sister."

"Lyrissa reckons she went on her own free will." I hadn't noticed Lyrissa was with us. But when she spoke up, she started with the third person stuff. "Nobody dragged her anywhere."

"I'm a veterinarian." Started Cass. "Tommy runs a kennel, Merton's a doctor so we don't have to pay for that, and Cally runs a shop near Piccadilly square. Happy?"

"And your…son?" Cass's dad raised an eyebrow.

"Goes to a very good private school." I finished.

"Angelique?"

"It's Lyrissa mother dear." Lyrissa looked about ready to kill. "And on January first it shall change to Esme (a/n: that's pronounced ez-may. I got it from the Series of Unfortunate events book: Ersatz Elevator) and thy shall call me that."

"Lyrissa's in Private school and going to college next year." I said. "We haven't ruined her completely."

"What I don't understand." Her dad went on. "Is why we didn't see that you were pregnant? You wore the tight clothes you usually did."

'No!' Cass, Lyrissa and I were mouthing to each other. We'd just given up one secret, and that was enough for today.

"Eye sight's the first thing to go when you get old." Said Rissa freshly.

"Ly watch it." Cass warned her. "They can take you away you know."

"We could." Said my dad shortly. "But we won't. She's a hassle, and we can't deal with her."

"Lyrissa's standing right here. Thee could at least show her some respect." Lyrissa huffed.

"Why is she talking like that?" 

"Acting. I told you." I said.

"Tommy I'll be with Trix." Lyrissa said. She turned on her heel and left.

"You've turned her against us."

"News flash. She was already against you." I decided to end this. "Let's talk about this later. Your luggage waits."

~

(A/n- well, well, well…I've made it to the end off another chapter! I know it's not usual for me to have two stories going on at once, but heh-heh…this gets interesting. Trust me. One of the parents is gonna end up messing with the orb thingy which Merton still knows not how to use. They end up in another dimension totally and end up fixing it for their liking.

Well that's not exactly what happens, but you get the basic, vague, sketchy, idea…right? Oh, well…please review. I'll draw an arrow.

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V

~

At about 6:00 that evening I was standing by the couch listening Cass arguing with Lyrissa. We'd drawn straws, and Cass had picked the smallest. Therefore, she had to try to get Lyrissa to put on a skirt and blouse for dinner. Rissa was planning on joining us in her skate boarding jeans, tee shirt, and her sneakers. I wasn't in the mood to deal with all that.

A moment later Lyrissa and Cass walked out of Lyrissa's room. Rissa was dressed and had a scowl covering her face. She sat down on the floor and stared straight ahead to the wall.

"…And talk like you live in this time period." Cass was saying. "None of that Thy, and thee stuff, ok?"

"Whatever." She growled. "I don't see why I have to go anyway. Why can't I baby-sit Josh? Do you really want to inflict him on Cally's mother?"

"Ly, c'mon. Be nice, just this one last time. Then I swear." I started to bribe her. "You don't have to be sweet anymore."

"Empty bribe Tommy." She shook her head as if in disappointment. "If you're gonna threaten me or bribe, I want it to be nice and juicy."

"You want a threat Lyrissa? I'll give you one." I snapped, bearing the fangs that were growing in my mouth. "Now come on."

She considered it, deciding if she wanted to give any more trouble. Finally she got up off the floor and stared at us.

"That's also quite empty." She said smugly. 

"Whether you like it or not, you're coming." Said Cass. "And if you don't come now, you're going to make us late."

"Oh and what a pity that would be." She muttered, rolling her eyes; but all the same she moved towards the door. "I'll go down ahead. And yes Tommy I'll be in the lobby when you two get there." She slammed the door behind her.

"Oh. My. God." Cass said when the door was closed. "Sometimes I can't wait till she goes to college."

"You and me both." I shook my head. "she is seventeen right? She was arguing like she used to when she was thirteen."

"It's probably just our parents being here." She pulled the door open. "We'd better go make sure she's actually down there."

Lyrissa was down in the lobby when we stepped off the elevator. She'd brought our car up from the garage (probably not out of nice spirit, but because it's an SUV and she likes the feeling of 'power' while driving it) and was tossing the keys up and down. I caught the keys in mid toss.

"Thanks."

"Only did it 'cause I like to drive." She stalked out into the damp London air. Cass and I followed her out to the jeep. She was sitting in the back seat. Her glare had softened but not by much, her eyes could still burn holes into the leather.

"Do I have to make physical contact with mom and dad?" she asked as we pulled out onto the street.

"If they want to hug you, accept it without the theatrics." I told her. "Just look like you want to make up for earlier when you were a total brat. Admit it, you were."

"Not true." She stonily. "Stop lying to yourself. You'd have done the same in my place."

"You want to be an actress right?" Cass asked her.

"Aye."

"well pretend this is a role. You've got to act like you them."

"Cass," Lyrissa laughed. "I'm not nine. That's not gonna work."

Rissa reached into her back-pack, pulled out a tube of blood red lipstick, and applied it. As she stuffed it back in the pack seemed to bulge out more than it should've. I looked in the mirror and saw a tuft of blue sticking out.

"Ly, what's in there?" I asked.

"Makeup, money, other stuff. Why?" she hastily closed the pack.

Cass gave her a skeptical look, but didn't pursue the subject.

"We're there." I announced.

"My heart's all a flutter." Was the sarcastic reply from the back seat. I got out an pulled open her door. Her seatbelt was still on and it didn't look like this was going to be easy.

"Angelique Gabriela Dawkins." Cass appeared by my side. "Get out of the car."

"The name's Lyrissa." She hopped out and walked ahead. "Try to get your feeble mind to remember that."

"she's gotta be PMS-ing or something." Cass muttered. "I don't think she's ever been half this sarcastic."

We walked up to the door, where she was glaring at the un-noticing bus-boy. I nudged her to get her to stop, while I told him our group. He directied us farther into the back, where four large tables were pulled together. Everyone else was already there, but then that was to be expected seeing as we had Lyrissa.

"Where were you guys?" Merton burst out, as soon as we sat down.

"we had to deal with hell-child over there." I pointed to Lyrissa who was reluctantly being hugged. Merton laughed as she started in Shakespeare talk again. Cass was rubbing her temples.

"Now do you believe me about little sisters?" He asked.

"No. she's only like this because they're here." I looked at my parents.

"I need to use the bathroom." Rissa popped up behind me…grinning.

"Five minutes." She was up to something.

"Thanks Tommy." She kissed me on the cheek and left.

"Who was that?" Asked Cass staring at Rissa's back.

I shrugged and looked towards the direction of the women's room, wondering what was going on in there. Lyrissa was soon forgotten. We all started talking to each other, catching up on news. It was announced that Chris and Becky were in fact dating. We also learned that Tim and Travis Eckert had been comatose for over a year now. They never had given up on the search for the Pleasantville werewolf and it ended up being their undoing. Tim had fallen out of a tree and hit his head. Travis had been bitten by a copperhead, and had been found to late. The poison couldn't be neutralized.

In the five minutes promised Lyrissa returned. She returned…but not the way she'd started. Instead of the knee high black skirt and the blue blouse there was a light blue tube-top, and baggy (she coulda had four sixteen wheelers in them) jeans with one knee artfully torn. On her feet were knee high boots and her curly brown hair was wrapped in a black bandana. To complete this whole ensemble she was wearing a full length trench coat. She grinned at she came to our table. I could tell she was basking in the attention she was earning.

"Remind me again," Cass whispered. "How many days before she's off to UCLA?"

"two-hundred something." I muttered, as she sat down.

"Like the outfit?" she smirked. reaching into a deep pocket she pulled out something blue and misty. The orb.

"LYRISSA!" Merton yelled. People from other tables started to stare.

"where'd you get that?" hissed Cally.

"What is that?" asked Merton's mother.

"I'm glad you asked that Mrs. Dingle." Rissa leaned back casually in her chair. "this is dimension traveler. Merton knows how to work it, and I know how to work it."

"A dimension traveler?" My mom looked at her like she was crazy. At that moment I wasn't sure myself.

"Us younger ones are going to be leaving now, sorry our visit had to be cut short." Rissa stood. 

"Where…" I began.

"Remember, these are dimensions you're dealing with here. You can change anything, and it won't affect this time line, so…have fun."

"Lyrissa, when we get back you're grounded." I said tonelessly.

"Empty." She taunted. She dug into her pocket again and pulled out an identical blue orb and tossed it to Cass Merton and I. "After you've been away for two hours you'll be able to come back."

"where are you sending us?" Cass glared at my sister who was having the best time of her life.

"think of the what ifs." She shrugged. "Me? Well there's a certain red-eyed Cajun down in New Orleans…you get the picture."

There was an almost blinding flash and the restaurant disappeared.

~

The flash put us down on an old fashion looking street corner. Lyrissa had obviously done something wrong, because she was with us…along with our parents.

"I think I'm going to shoot you." I said, staring at Rissa..

she glared at me. "something went wrong. You shouldn't be here."

"And neither should you. Give me that!" Merton snatched the orb out of her hand, and held it with the other one she'd given him. "where are we"

"New Orleans." She grumbled.

"You said that you were going from dimension to dimension." Said Cass. "so which dimension is this?"

At this moment one of our parents open their mouths to speak. Cally muttered a muting spell on all of them. She was right in thinking we didn't need that distraction at the moment.

"You really don't want to know what dimension this is." She said. "Trust me."

"Yeah we do. Trust us." I answered.

"Is it possible for you to have taken us into some made up fake place?" Cally raised her eyebrows.

"Yes." Rissa scowled.

"You said something about a red eyed Cajun." Continued Cally. "You're dating a bloody comic character!"

"Uh, for those of us who didn't read comics?" Merton asked for an explanation.

"Your little sister is dating Gambit from the X-men." She said. "Correct?"

Lyrissa shrugged, expressionless. "All I'm saying is you guys weren't supposed to end up here. You were supposed to be in 1993, at Pleasantville Elementary. I was gonna let you play around a little with time; see what would happen if you Cass and Merton met earlier. But some how you're here…with me… and them." She pointed to the parents.

"I'm still going to shoot you." I said. 

"Empty." She raised an eyebrow. "we've got two hours until we can leave. I suggest we get off this corner. We look like tourists, and the Thieves guild _loves_ tourists. It's so easy to pickpocket them." She smirked again and held up the orb which Merton had just taken from her

Cass, Merton, Cally and I glanced at each other. Lyrissa was already walking down the street ahead of us, with her long trench coat trailing behind her.

"She seriously freaks me out." Cally shook her head. "she's dating a comic character, and she works for the thieves guild."

"She's scaring us all right now." I watched her. "This might explain why she goes out so much. What was I thinking when I brought her to London?"

"That she wouldn't get her hands on a dimension hopper. This is like something out of the Sliders."

"The what?" asked Cally.

"Old TV show." Merton explained shrugging. "But that's not important. We need to get out of here, and when we get back we need to get your sister to a shrink…stat."He took out the orb. "She might think she put a block on here, but I doubt it. We'll be out of here in a minute. Only the parents and us though. Ly will have to bring herself back."

~

A few minutes we found ourselves in the back room of Cally's shop. The twelve parents and our siblings looked dazed, but still couldn't talk. 

"I'll ask my mum if I can maybe do a memory wipe." Said Cally biting her lip. "I don't think we want them remembering that."

She took the muting charm off the others, but then froze them. "That'll hold them until I get permission, then I can transport them back to the hotel like nothing happened."

"Next order of business…" Cass's eyes darkened. "How to get Lyrissa, what to do to her, and then getting that orb."

"All I know," I said. "is, she's not seeing the light of day again, until we put her on the plane to California."

"I second that." Said Merton. "But our only option is to wait for her to come back. We can't force her to come back unless she looses the orb. When she has the orb, she's got the power of choice."

~

"Hey Tommy." Lyrissa grinned as Cass, Josh, and I walked into the flat. She was lounging on the couch, with her feet hanging over the edge. "Sorry I had stay. There was business I needed to take care of."

I wolfed out and walked over to her. She only grinned, knowing I'd wolfed out in frustration and not because I wanted to hurt her. The grin was not helping her case in the least but she didn't care.

"Gimme the orb." I growled.

She took it out of her coat pocket and tossed it from hand to hand. "Sorry, this ones mine. You've got one. I gave it to you."

"Ly give it to us." Said Cass coming over.

"Oh, you're jealous, I get it now." She stuck her tongue out.

I paced in front of her. "Where'd you get a double?"

"I understand its power." Her smirk left, and it was replaced with an all-knowing look. "It's not just a time traveler, It can do other stuff. When I left the other one outside the door I'd already duplicated it, so we'd each have one."

"Wait!" Cass yelled. "You left it out side the door?"

"Yeah." She shrugged. "you know how I help Cally's mom sometimes? She had me clear out some old stuff that she'd thought had lost their magic a long time ago. I thought they had too; I only took the orb 'cause I thought it was pretty. I asked if I could take it, so it wasn't like I stole it or anything. Cally's mom said ok, and I took it. Then it started doing some weird crap and I figured it out. Simple eh?"

Cass and I started at her in disbelief.

"I've shocked you," she grinned again. "How cute."

"The orb Rissa." Cass held out her hand.

"Can't, how else would I travel?" she stood up. "I needed some more excitement in my life."

"Your life doesn't have enough excitement already?" I asked sarcastically.

"Actually no." Lyrissa looked thoughtful for a moment. "Where I go, it's a lot better. Stealing, running from mutant haters, stuff like that. It's fun! And if we're done here, I've got to get back."

"You're grounded." Cass stated.

"Sorry but-" she stopped in mid sentence and shuddered.

"What's the matter?" 

"God damnit." Ly felt the orb and seemed to be concentrating. "It's the dimension pirates. They've been after me for awhile. They want the orb, and right now they're trying to take it."

She shuddered again and inhaled sharply. "If I get taken you have to come and get me."

"What?" I asked, confused.

"I don't have much time." She started to flicker like she was a hologram or something. "Come and get me. Bring Merton and Cally, start in New Orleans, ask for…" she flickered again. "Ask for Remy LeBeau… he'll tell you where to go from there. Then just follow the pirates' trail. Merton'll be able to get it."

"Lyrissa!" Josh grabbed her flickering hand. 

"The pirates spend time in between time space continuums, but they also go into different places. You'll get there-" she fully disappeared for about five seconds, but then appeared again. "Most of the dimensions are ones I constructed from other stuff. Just come and get me, please. If you don't get me within five days, I'm there for ever."

She released a tense sigh and let herself be taken by the 'pirates'.

"She's gone." Josh felt the air where her hand had been. 

"How does she get herself into these things?" I moaned. "Looks like we'll be spending Christmas differently than planned."

"Oh, no." Cass said. "We're getting' her outa there before Christmas Eve. I'll call Merton and Cally." 

~

"Continuum Pirates." Cally's mom rocked back on her heels. "That's an old tale, never did believe it. Puh, I said, Pirates living in between time. Didn't think it possible, but you say your sister's been taken. It's said to happen. If one posses something they want, they'll be abducted. Your sister should've handed the orb over to them the first time they asked; would've been the smart thing to do."

"Lyrissa never does the smart or rational thing Mrs. Anderson." Cass said dryly. "But there's no time for should'ves, would'ves, and could'ves. We need to get her."

"There's nothing in the books mum, I've looked." Cally came in shrugging. "I think we're going to have to do this the good ol' fashion way. Go in there, pick up a trail, follow and kick what ever butt we have to on the way."

"Seems you will." Her mom moved to the shelves. "Take your orb of course, but hide it well, pirates get greedy. Pirates are almost immortal, so you can't kill them easily. If you must fight them, try knocking them out." She pulled down a pocket sized dusty book and handed it to Cally. "This is a book of every dimension that exists, even if it was created by Lyrissa. It updates its self every time a new one is made. You'll be able to use it well I hope."

"Thanks mum." Cally turned to us. "I think we're ready."

We nodded.

"Right now, who'd she tell us to talk to first?" she asked.

"Some guy…Remy LeBeau." Said Cass.

"Her boy friend." Cally grinned, raising an eyebrow. "You're lucky. I'm a comic expert, and I'll imagine that many of Ly's dimensions take place in comic times, for whatever reason she wanted."

Merton took the book from Cally and opened to a random page and started to read. "'Dimension XXXVI: Batman Beyond. Created by Angelina Dawkins. Aliases: Lyrissa Dawkins, Ly, and Rissa.' Oh boy." Merton flipped through more pages. "Half of these places were created by her. She's been busy."

"You should go." Mrs. Anderson said fretfully, pushing back a strand of black hair. "She's running out of time."

Merton held the orb in his hand. We stood around him and left.

(A/n: Arg! This did not turn out the way I expected. I was planning on making some other evil person. I don't know _where_ in my forsaken mind I got the idea for Dimension Pirates. I think my nephew might have made them up while he was playing with his Legos or something. ***Shakes head madly*** I seriously would like to know where they came from though.

So how d'you people like Lyrissa? I personally love writing her. In a review once, someone asked if I was Cass. Well no I'm not. I'm Lyrissa. Her story is mine. I don't exactly get along with my parents; I'm living with my older brother, his wife, and their son. When my parents come to visit or I have to go spend the weekend with them I get very sarcastic. And yes, I have pulled the changing-clothes-in-the-fancy-restaurant stunt. Ouch, that was a painful grounding. I also tend to slip into different accents. I do Shakespeare, third person, and Cajun. Though, alas, I don't have an all powerful blue orb, my brother isn't a werewolf***sobs violently*,** and I don't date Gambit (he's soooo cute!) ***Loonybin's brother looks at the computer while she's typing and starts threatening to take away her Big Wolf TV privileges and her Uncanny X-Men comics, because he says it's messing up her brain*.** Anyhoo, yeah, I love writing Lyrissa and will probably continue to until I mature or something crazy like that. Oh yeah, that outfit? My Halloween costume last year. I was a Gambit chick. Yes I know, I HAVE PROBLEMS.

Ok, I'm going now. The psychiatrist wants to see me. Just kidding, but I've got to go because my brothers yelling at me to get off. Apparently his work is more important than this story. He's got to get his priorities straight (ack, that sounded like Lyrissa!). ***Yes, Kevin I'm leaving! Go away**! * Wait not you people. Ok, I'm typing fast. GTG! TTFN: Tata for now!

Peace out everybody!

-Loonybin (7/18/01- my half birthday!)


	2. Gone

~

~

"Lyrissa told you t' meet me?" Remy LeBeau stood in front of us leaning casually on a light post.

"Yeah." Said Merton. "Do you know where she went? She said she told you about the people trying to get her."

"She did. Somet'ing about some pirates. Said her brot'er would be comin' with his friends." He shrugged.

"That would be me." I stepped forward. "So where is she?"

"'Ere's what I know." He stared at us with red on black eyes. "'De pirates be first takin' her to 'de Xena world. 'Dat's all I know. From 'dere you'll have t' pick up 'de pirates trail."

"Merton can you do that?" asked Cass.

"Sure. Every one that travels with in the space-time continuum leaves a trail; I guess you could describe it as foot prints. We just have to set the orb to find them then trace them."

"One last t'ing." Remy stood ready to leave. "She be a mutant y'know; in your real time where you come from. She wanted me to tell you 'dat."

"A what?" Merton's jaw dropped slightly. "Did you just say she's a mutant?"

"Oui." He answered. "'De chere be powerful too. Fire comes naturally t' her."

"We'll discuss that later." I gave Merton a look. "So you said Xena dimension?"

He nodded. "I gotta be leavin' now. For all you know 'de chere might've escaped already. Like I said, 'de fire comes strong."

Merton seemed interested in the whole fire thing, but Remy had already disappeared down the foggy street. He sighed and looked at me, rubbing the bridge of his nose.

"Is that possible?" I asked him.

"There are two possibilities." He held up his index finger. "A: she gave herself powers from the orb, which is likely. B: evolution is taking place in our world."

"And the likelihood of that?" Cally looked at him expectantly. "You are a genetics major."

"About an eighty percent chance of that." He squinted, thinking. "which leaves twenty percent saying that she got the powers from the orb."

"Um, guys." Cass interjected, looking around. "Remember what Ly said about hanging around corners? Let's just go to the next place and get her back."

"Like you're really worried about being pick-pocketed." Merton said sardonically. "You just wanna meet Xena."

"That's part of it." She grinned sheepishly. "But also, we're on a deadline."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah." Muttered Merton. "But if we meet Gabriel I've got first dibs."

This earned him a whack on the head from his wife.

*~*

(A/n: Writers block sucks! And right now I have a major case of it, so I'm just gonna babble in this A/n until I get an idea or my brother decides to kick me off the computer; which ever comes first. Ok? Ok. Good.

Let's see…I still don't know what's gonna happen in the king Arthur one. I'm drawing a total blank. And I still have no idea where dimension pirates came from. I don't even know what they look like yet, which means I'm not gonna be able to describe them. The only thing I know so far is that they don't look human exactly. I think I want them to be sort of plasma-ish, or maybe to look like taxxons from Animorphs (bus sized centipedes, for those of you who never read the books). And then of course there're the worlds they need to travel to. I'm having a bit of trouble with that too. So far I've got X-men, Xena, Pleasantville, Charmed (much to Merton's delight), and, and…I d'know! I can't do Buffy or Angel which I know sound ideal, but I never ever, ever watch Buffy or Angel (I sorta outlawed them to myself when the first came on the air. I don't know why though.) So sorry all you Buffy worshipers. I swear, there are just no good fantasy worlds anymore! I was thinking Harry Potter but I had to discard that one after I realized that Tommy ad Remus just really don't match up, and I hate the present world of Harry Potter, with Harry Ron and Hermione. I only like the marauders. I'm getting off subject aren't I?

Ok, then…new subject! Wait, I can't think of anything! Darn it! Arg! HEY!!!!!! Breakthrough! I think I've got an idea. If the pirates are made of plasma they could leave traces in different worlds, confusing our hero's and heroines! What about that? Hmm…I'll have to go work with that. It probably won't turn out right anyway. Jeeze…and I just remembered, Cass is supposed to be having a baby too! Merde! I've gotta leave now and write all this down on some post-it-notes. I'm soooo not organized.

*~*

Merton gets excited over some pretty weird stuff. Take the time the Pleasantville Strangler was brought back to life, or when I bit Cass. He gets all jumpy, a funny little grin crawls over his face, and he's got some sort of really weird insane laugh that he does. Well when he was able to bring us down in the Xena dimension right on the pirates trail he did all of that…times ten. We all arrived standing together in the same little huddle we'd left New Orleans in. Merton was in the middle of us all and came down sitting. He looked dazed for a second, before feeling around himself. His hand ended up covered in some clear slimy stuff with a slight red tint to it. First the insane grin sprouted, then the laugh, and then he got really hyper for a minute like he'd had a total adrenaline rush. Cally waited for him to calm down before actually asking him what he was screeching about.

"Can't you see!" He let the stuff slide from hand to hand. "This is some sort of plasma, from a body!"

"Ok." Cally scrunched up her face. "This means?"

"Well no one in this time period had plasma for skin! This had to have been the pirates. And," he sniffed it tenderly. "It smell charred. Which means Lyrissa must have burned them with her, quote un-quote 'powers'. And from this we can deduce that they were here and in a struggle."

"So we've just got to find more of that stuff?" I asked.

"Well we don't know if the dropped anymore." Merton held the stuff like it was a baby. "Ergo, we have to save this sample so I can test it when we get back home."

"Actually, I talking about finding more of it so we can find Lyrissa." 

"Tommy! We're dealing with creatures of an ecto-plasmic background, and you want to find your comic book dating sister! I've got the finding worthy of the noble prize and you want to find a seventeen year old. Get your priorities straight man!"

"C'mon plasma boy." Cass grabbed his arm and made him follow us. 

"Be careful!" yelled Merton, squeezing his hand around it.

"Cass, info?" Cally said. "You're a Xena fan right?"

"Yeah," Cass looked around the road where we'd landed. The only things on it were us and a poster that had been tacked to a tree. She looked at it closely. "Well the signs says something about Rome and their new empress, Livia. She was Xena's daughter I think."

"You think?" Merton raised an eyebrow. "What d'you mean, you think?"

"Gee Merton, the show _only_ went off the year like nine years ago, and all my memorabilia is _only_ 3000 miles away back in Pleasantville. So yeah, I should _still_ know every single detail about the show." She answered dryly. "And yes, I'm pretty sure she was Xena's daughter. Before she reformed she was Livia of Rome, then some saint or something reformed her. But during her times as Livia evil conquered the land."

"My Greek Latin isn't very good, but that says something about a reward for Xena's head." Read Merton.

"Which means Xena's gotten out of the ice coffin already." She stuck her tongue out at Merton. "See I haven't forgotten everything."

"Just 99 percent of it." He shot back.

"Ok you two." I took Cass away from Merton. "Just give us as much info as you can."

" I can't tell much more until we get some where. We might be in an episode or…" Cass grinned. "Cally your mother didn't give us that damned book for nothing. Give me that!"

She tossed her the small book and she started flipping through it. "Season six, it's the episode where Livia reforms back to Eve. If we play our cards right we won't even meet up with them. I remember there was a battle in a temple somewhere."

"Knowing our cards, we will meet up with them." I said.

"Livia…" Merton rubbed his chin. "she was that really hot Roman warrior on the show wasn't she?"

"C'mon Cass, let's walk ahead. If we stay to close to my husband here, we might end up slipping on testosterone." Cally rolled her eyes.

"Hey I've had some really bad experiences with that stuff!" he called after them. "You've never heard the cave man story!"

"Just focus." I turned to Merton. "any more plasma stuff?"

"Not that I can see, but the orbs just saying keep going down the road." He shrugged. "We just follow the trail until we find a portal."

"Can't you analyze the plasma and find out wear they went? Or something like that."

Merton gingerly placed a portion of the stuff on the orbs surface. It sat still, unmoving as Merton whispered a few words. When he finished reciting what ever it was the stuff started to move around. It formed a shape that I didn't recognize, but Merton obviously did because he went through his three steps to becoming insane process.

"what is it?"

"Cally, Cass!" Merton ignored me and yelled down the road after the others. "we're getting' ready to leave. The Merton express leaves after I explain."

"Explain what?" asked Cally. She glanced thoughtfully at the shape of the plasma. "Hey, that's a pentacle. It's sort of a witches symbol."

"Correct." He looked at me intently. "Ok Tommy I need you to tell me every TV show or comic book your sister ever liked."

"Um, X-men, Spiderman, Star Trek, Star Wars, Friends, Popular, Sabrina the Teenaged witch…"

"Uh…no." Merton interrupted. "Continue."

"Well, she's a sci-fi freak. Andromeda, Jack of All Trades, Charmed…"

"That's it." He nodded. "Cass, Cally…quick synopsis if you will?"

"Of Charmed?" Cally cocked her head, thinking. "It was about three witch sisters…"

"…The charmed ones." Said Cass. "They usually just vanquished demons…"

"…And an occasional boyfriend." Interjected Cally. "Remember Cole?"

" Almost vanquished." Corrected Cass.

"Ok, you two are scaring me now." 

"Very funny Merton." Cass shot him a look. "let's just go. We'll look in the book when we get there."

*~*

(A/n- I'm soooooo sorry this took so long to upload. My PC crashed, and I had to wait for my dad to fix it. Luckily none of my docments were lost so I didn't have to type this over again. Also I've been on vacation for awhile so that played a part in the late uploading as well. I hope all you people out there haven't lost interest because now that school's starting up soon I'll be writing a lot more. (it'll help me avoid homework!) I'll also probably have another story out soon about vampires. (I've just recently finished the Vampire Chronicles, and right now I'm working on L.J. Smith's Vampire Diaries). I started writing it while I was riding back from South Carolina, and since that was like three weeks ago, it should be ready soon.) 


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